This week is turning out to be a VwaV week. I made another 3 things from this awesome cookbook - Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy, Sesame Asparagus, and Mexican Chococlate Rice Pudding.
For Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy, I didn't do much different. I just added fried tofu and sliced button mushrooms in addition to the recipe. Also, I used an expensive Chardonnay in cooking because I didn't get white cooking wine. The stew surely turned out fantastic, probably because of the extra Chardonnay I accidentally poured into the stew. :-)
Sesame Asparagus was so easy to make too. However, I didn't have toasted sesame oil, so I sort of just dashed some sesame oil in olive oil and sauteed everything. I sprinkled black sesame seeds on top in the end, which produced a very striking photo.
Finally, let me come to the big flop of the day. I started making this Mexican Chocolate Rice Pudding full of enthusiasm but I ran out of white rice in the beginning. I only had less than 1/4 cup. I was already hard bent on making this pudding though. So I foolishly started cooking brown basmati rice instead. The 30-minute fun turned into a 3-hour saga of fighting with the hard-ass basmati rice. In the end, my husband had to put all the cooked stuff in the blender to get the smoothness. Amazingly the pudding turned out great! I was so glad that it wasn't a wasted effort altogether. Subsequently and naturally I ate too much of the pudding.